Several
objects in the exhibition have been loaned by other Ohio institutions
including The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Columbus Museum of Art,
Metropolitan Bank and Trust, and The Toledo Museum of Art. Changing
Visions of the North American Landscape is part of a larger
initiative to integrate the museum's collection into the general
curriculum of the College, and is supported by a grant from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The exhibition opens October 24, 2000,
and runs through January 28, 2001.

THE COLLEGE
PURCHASED THE BUILDING last spring that formerly housed the Co-op
Bookstore, retaining Barnes & Noble, Inc./College Division
to manage the store.

The new kids
on the block held a massive one-day clearance of all the stock
forfeited by the Co-Op Bookstore--a move which melted the stiff
resistance of some of the locals who feared that "Big Business"
was taking over downtown. All prices were agreeably cut, and whatever
books and merchandise were left over turned up at reduced rates
at the Oberlin merchants' Annual Sidewalk Sale in July.

A few familiar
faces reside behind the counters, and the staff has made a concentrated
effort to provide all the trade books, texts,
and materials that students must have, as well as other offerings
that will attract the townspeople back to the store after a hiatus
of nine months. There is an explosion of colorful Oberlin sweatshirts,
jogging outfits, gifts, and dorm room necessities, and the new
management assures us that the Oberlin Bookstore will keep pace
with Oberlin's special needs, including faculty, students, townspeople,
and visitors.

Although
a percentage of the store's annual profits will accrue to the
College, the day-to-day management decisions belong to Barnes
& Noble. Now begins a new chapter in the history of the little
shop on the corner we have all known and loved.

PIECE BY CAREFULLY-WRAPPED
PIECE, the College's new Opus 116 symphonic organ arrived in August
on campus, where a crew of workers from organ builder C.B. Fisk,
Inc., began the lengthy task of assembling the instrument in Finney
Chapel. Next began the ten-month voicing process of toning each
of the organ's 3,951 pipes.

Professor
of Organ Haskell Thomson says that Opus 116 will be ideally suited
for romantic and contemporary music, and is "capable of making
a crescendo from the most ethereal pianissimo to a thundering
fortissimo."

The organ
will be heard publicly in inaugural performances tentatively scheduled
for next September. Oberlin's previous organ was dismantled in
June 1999 and shipped to its new home in Truro Episcopal Church
of Fairfax, Virginia.